On Wednesday, June 1 Tempus Projects and Vessel Collective hosted the second Folklore, featuring interviews with a music journalist and the creators of Tampa Indie Flea. Ray Roa writes for Sub Ap!, Creative Loafing, and TBT* to name a few as well as working part-time at a local advertising agency. Seanissey Loughlin and Rosey Williams created an event that fosters the makers community and the ‘buy local’ movement. Each of the interviewees comes from a different background, but they’re cut from the same cloth because each is passionate about seeing their friends, neighbors, and Tampa as a whole flourish. About 40 of us listened to their personal histories, lessons they’ve learned, what they love about our city, and what they still hope to see happen in the next few years to our local culture. All proceeds of the event benefit Tempus Projects and its future programming.

This event also marked the 6th birthday of Vessel Collective. That’s 6 years of sharing the successes and struggles of artists, musicians, and creativists. We’re hosted more than a dozen community events under this moniker, including ‘The Travelogues’ and now ‘Folklore’. Thanks for your support and we’d love to see you at the next events in August (The Travelogues) and September (Folklore).

Thank you to Ryan Seybold for capturing all of Folklore #2’s lovely angles. Keep creating and building, Tampa!

On Friday, May 6 we heard stories from Travelogues veterans, Katie & Eric Turner of History Bike Tampa and Travelogues newbie, Danielle Calhoun of Black Sheep Bride. Katie and Eric have presented three times, with the first one being in 2013 about their visit together to Kazakhstan. We’ve also enjoyed stories of St. Augustine from the Turners, but on this night it was their honeymoon in Cambodia and Thailand. Katie and Eric play off of each other really well and are always so fun to hear from.

Danielle Calhoun shared stories and amazing photos of her trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso, Africa. Her first trip to Burkina Faso changed the course of her life. From this trip came Black Sheep Bride, a wedding blog that features vendors that give back to their local communities and charities.

It was a fantastic night and we hope you enjoy hearing their stories below. Stay tuned for the next event on Friday, September 2 at Cafe Hey. Safe travels.

On Wednesday, March 2 magic took place. There were no playing cards and nobody was sawed in half, but magic happened in the form of community. A chef and a curator talked about their struggles, successes, hopes for Tampa, and more in front of a live audience in a local art gallery in Seminole Heights amongst over 40 people, one greyhound named Sabina, and several art installations by Brooklyn-based artist, Langdon Graves (the show by Graves was it’s own exhibition, but lended itself very well to Folklore).

The creator of Folklore is also the person behind its umbrella project, Vessel. Her name is Gina Moccio, and she is me. I am so proud and excited to have been able to dream up another project and see it come to fruition. I’m thankful to have partnered with Tempus Projects and have Folklore be a part of the gallery’s 2016 programming and I’m so excited to get to not only do interviews again, but to do them with people who I admire in the local food, music, and art community.

March 2nd’s Folklore heard stories from Chef Ferrell Alvarez of Rooster & the Till and Sarah Howard, Curator of Public Art and Social Practice at USF Institute for Research in Art. We received radio love from JoEllen Schilke on WMNF’s Art in Your Ear and from Lenora Lake at The Tampa Tribune. Thank you to everyone who attended Folklore and those who will come and see us in June for Folklore # 2 with Ray Roa, Rosey Williams, & Seanissey Loughlin. We’ll see you soon! In the meantime, check out photos from the event below by the wonderful Luis Gottardi and stay tuned for more photos by Trey Penton of Two Keys Press and audio from March 2nd’s interviews.

Follow us on Instagram here & tag photos from the event as well as legendary locals you think would make great interviewees at a future Folklore at #folkloretampa.
Chef Ferrell Alvarez – Folklore #1 [Interview Recording]